Down a Block

I was supposed to spend at least 3 full days in Rwanda but family stuff took precedence and I opted for more time in Mbarara. The plan was to head by myself to Kigali on the bus Wednesday morning and spend an evening and one full day there before catching my flight home. Then Mum took exception to me traveling alone (she actually spent some time crying about it) and it was decided by the family (and without me) that Lil Bro would be my travel companion, or chaperone in my opinion. So Dad drove us to a gas station at 5:00am to catch the Kampala/Kigali bus and sent us on our way, me with a big hug and Lil Bro with a manly handshake. A lot of people drive or hire private cars to take them across the border. I’m told that version of the commute takes around 3 hours. It takes twice as long by bus. Around 5:30am we were finally on our way, turns out the bus wasn’t late but we were super early.

This was the part of the trip where I sort of got to relax, hanging with the family, leisurely mornings waking up and enjoying the day outside the city, going for drives, swims, sightseeing. All that stuff you want to take the time to do and are grateful when it actually happens. Then there is that one day that makes the whole trip.

After two well-spent weeks in Kampala it was time to leave the city and head to Mbarara in the south, but rather than taking the highway directly there we decided to do a road trip to see more of the country. We left early-ish on Wednesday morning in a minivan owned by a friend who also gave us the driver, young Sam, who would provide a bit more of an adventure than anticipated as he drove like a bat out of hell. We definitely got where we were going quickly but acquired some bruises along the way.